Europe’s food bowl turns to a breadbasket

The World Food Program has warned of rising prices around the world and increasing starvation in vulnerable countries.

Once-arable land northeast of Kyiv has been sown with landmines. Picture: AFP

Ukraine has banned exports of major foods, including meat, rye, barley and buckwheat for the rest of the year as the war in the country, and sanctions on Russia, reverberates around the world.

The head of the World Food Program, David Beasley, has warned of rising prices around the world and increasing starvation in vulnerable countries.

He described the situation as ’’hell on earth’’ as the Ukraine-Russian region was the “global breadbasket” supplying grains and oils for some of the world’s poorest regions.

“So you’re going from being a breadbasket to now, literally, having to hand out bread to them. It’s just an incredible reverse of ­reality,” he said.

Ukraine and Russia provides about a quarter of the world’s wheat, and the war has put extraordinary pressure on supplies. ­Futures markets for wheat, corn and sunflower oils have hit generation highs.

Svein Tore Holsether, head of Yara, Europe’s largest fertiliser manufacturer, said the war would deliver a shock to global supply and the cost of food. “For me, it’s not whether we are moving into a global food crisis – it’s how large the crisis will be,” he said.

As well as effecting wheat, barley and sunflower oil supplies, Russia and Ukraine supplied a significant proportion of global fertiliser, as well as potash and phosphate. “We were already in a difficult situation before the war,” Mr Holsether told the BBC, “and now it’s additional disruption to the supply chains and we’re getting close to the most important part of this season for the northern hemisphere, where a lot of fertiliser needs to move on and that will quite likely be impacted.”

Spain has already begun ­rationing sunflower oil and grains, raising concerns among farmers how to feed the country’s 55 million pigs. In Ireland, Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue has urged dairy and beef producers to switch to growing grain to reduce the country’s reliance on imports. Ireland imports 60 per cent of grain. Mr McConalogue said planting grain and growing enough grass for fodder would be important.

“There is going to be an onus on each farm, business, themselves to assess the next year in terms of making preparations for the year ahead,’’ he told Irish radio.

Lebanon, which was in crisis even before the Beirut port explosion two years ago, was heavily ­dependent on Ukrainian wheat, as was Egypt, Indonesia and Bangladesh. Lebanon has just a month’s supply of grain and last week pleaded for help from the US to pay for $US20m worth of wheat to bolster supplies for an extra four weeks.

Ukrainian maize exports ­mainly went to the EU and China, while its barley was consumed by Saudi Arabia and China. India was a big consumer of sunflower seed oil, as was the EU.

Russia and Ukraine combined had about 12.7 million tonnes of wheat and 16.8 million tonnes of corn left to ship this season, about 7 per cent of total global grains trade, according to the UN. But since the invasion of February 24 Black Sea ports have been shut and farmers have joined the fight.

Ukrainian Food Minister Roman Leshchenko has told farmers to prepare to sow crops “if the situation allows’’. “We have sown wheat, barley. We are not giving up. We have a clear understanding that the country’s food security depends on what we will have in fields,’’ he said.